‘I’ve never, ever made this about me’

   Your tenure’s been marked by construction.  More buildings have gone up under your presidency than anyone else’s.  Are there any projects you would have liked to seen built while you were here?  Any missed opportunities?

   I’m not sure there were missed opportunities.  Of course we’ve always had a list.  I’d very much like to see a theatre constructed because we’re going to lose the other one (due to Lloyd Expressway construction). The only project ... I guess, looking back, there’s nothing we set out to do that we didn’t get done.  Maybe we weren’t ambitious enough, but a lot of buildings have gone up.
   Actually I’m very happy with what we’ve done in terms of building.

   How many buildings have gone up since you’ve been here?

   The Health Professions building was under construction but not finished when I came here.  That was followed by Liberal Arts, before the Science and Engineering Center went up.
    I’ve been here a long time – 15 years.

   Will this next wave of construction be the last for a while?

   Well, it’s not as if we don’t have needs.
   We still have the lowest assignable square footage per student of any institution in the state except for the two-year programs.
   We have a pretty great need for a multi-purpose classroom facility.  We need some renovations in the Physical Activities Center; certainly if enrollment keeps growing – and it looks like it will – we’ll need more housing.
   I’d like to see (the housing) built on campus by outside entities as opposed to through student fees.
   We’re also going to need to do something with the building that houses art and engineering now.
   And while it would have been the last of my priorities, (the Wright Administration) building doesn’t serve the administration’s purposes very well.  We’ve started to farm people out, so it’s going to be time to start thinking about a new administration building at some point in  time.

   As far as the state budget, there’s been a kind of freezing on capital project spending.

   The (Indiana) general assembly’s not done yet.  
    In the joint house senate resolution for the budget – which did not pass – the theatre building was there to be authorized.  How that will turn out now will be hard to say.

   You recently had an editorial published in the Courier and Press in which you criticized “Reaching Higher” – a document proposed by the Indiana Commission of Higher Education. You said the document would do nothing to address the inequality in funding for USI when compared to other state universities.  Indiana State is roughly the same size as USI, but receives more than twice the amount of funding per full-time equivalent student.  Why do you think there is such a discrepancy in funding?

   I think (the discrepancy) has an historic basis.  What I said in (the editorial) was no way a complaint about the general assembly.  They’ve done a good job for us, and Lord knows I’d be perfectly happy to criticize them if I thought they hadn’t.
   The real issue is, I think, is that we’ve been growing and Indiana State has been shrinking in size and the budget has not followed down …
   The Indiana Commission – who ought to be an Indiana policy body – has ignored that fact for all these years.
   It doesn’t take a reasonable person to look at (the funding) and say, “wait a minute.”

   Do you think there will be any steps in the future to rectify the funding problem?

   I think the general assembly has tried over the years.
   Four times, since I’ve been here, we’ve gotten what were called “special catch up increases.”
   You have to remember, if the 15 years I’ve been here … we’ve had a higher percentage appropriation in all of those years but one, but what’s more remarkable is we’ve had the highest percentage appropriation all of those years but two.
   It’s hard for the general assembly to adapt to a growing institution, but if we look at some of the institutions that are funded better than we are – and you look at the choices students are making – I think (the students) understand that they’ve got a great value here … and they make this choice over places that theoretically have more money to educate them.

   The USI Foundation has spiked since you’ve been here.  It started at $3.8 million when you arrived, and it’s at $53 million now, correct?

   The foundation got to $70 million before (the market dropped).
   We are not making expenditures out of the portion (of money) that’s in the stock market.  We’re making expenditures out of other places, so when the market comes back – and it will come back, it always does – the (money) will come back as well.
   The foundation is still sound.  It’s one of things that makes a major contribution to our being able to keep your education as inexpensive as it is.

   How long do you think it will take the Foundation to rebound to $70 million?

   Oh, God, if I knew that I wouldn’t be sitting here … I’d be on television, because I’d be straightening out the entire country.
   History is not a perfect judge of the future, but it’s really the best one we have.
Downturns in economies have rarely lasted more than 18 months.
   If it follows past patterns, the market will be back where it was in three or four years. And a year and half of that has already gone by.

   You’ll be serving as Chancellor after your retirement from the presidency.  Can you give a quick overview of your role?

   My appointment was for two years.  I would not expect it to extend past that.
   Outside fundraising has always been important to us – it’s important to you, because it keeps your costs down.
   I’ll be doing (my job) under the direction of the new president (Linda Bennett).  I don’t mean to impinge upon or impede her.
   I will have no say in the operations of the university whatsoever.  
   I will assist (Bennett) in whatever way I can.  I won’t give her more assistance than she wants, and I’ll give her all she wants.
   There’s no one, expect for maybe her, that wants her presidency to be a roaring success more than I do …
   I think the next ten years will be some of the best times this university has ever seen, and if I weren’t getting so long in the tooth, I’d want to be doing (the job of the president).

   Do you see USI growing continually at its present rate?

   I do.
   We leveled off a bit when there was the ramping up of Ivy Tech into a community college system, but we expected that and we supported their doing that.
   Enrollment turned up again last year, and it looks as it will turn up a little more sharply this year.
   And projecting enrollment is always tough.
   But the pattern here looks as if its up.  The reputation of the university continues to grow statewide and in the region and in fact probably more of our growth is coming outside of the region than inside the region.

   Which is different from years past.

   It is different than it used to be. It started to change four or five years ago, I think.
When people come here, they want to go to school here.  If a student visits the campus, they’re almost always going to come here ...
   It’s the people they meet. (We certainly have) a nice setting for a campus, but I don’t think people make their decision based off that.  
   I went to Eastern Illinois when some of my classes were in a hall so old and creaky you always wondered whether you were going to fall through the floor.
   It’s nice to have a good physical plant – and it makes a difference – but I don’t think students make their decision based on that.  
   And they shouldn’t, incidentally.

   You’ve always shrugged off questions about your legacy.  But if someone were to ask you for the thousandth time, what would be your short answer?

   I don’t think there is a legacy. I truly don’t.
   I’ll tell you the special thing we do here:  we see ourselves as an institution to be of service.
   One of the great problems in the academic world is a lot of places and a lot of people – a lot of the professorate, and to some degree a lot of the public – have some interesting ideas of what makes a quality institution.
   The more people you turn down (for enrollment) makes you a better institution.
   The less the professors teach make you a better institution.
   Those things don’t make you a better institution.  What makes you a good institution is the service you provide.
   Test scores here are going up, and we’re getting a better-prepared student each year.
But we’ve kept a clear head about what we’re here to be. We’re here to give you an absolute first rate education, geared very much to the economy of the region so that when you leave the probability of there being a job for you is quite high.
   If you look at the qualifications of the incoming students here, we look more like a selective institution than an institution that is not selective.
   If there is a legacy it is the legacy of the commitment to service both to the students and to the region.
   When you talk about legacies, though, it strikes me as self-aggrandizement.
I’ve never, ever made this about me.  It’s about all of us.
   The interesting thing about the kind of job I’m in is that when things are going well you get all the credit for a lot of things you never did, and if (things) are going badly, there’s the reverse.
   But (USI) has been a better institution almost every year than it was the year before, and I think people generally feel that.
   I don’t really feel as if (the success has been because of) me.  I’ve tried to be an important part of it, but this didn’t all happen because of me.